Once a fun and useful way of presenting data in an easy-to-digest format, infographics have been overused to the point that their reputation is close to ruin.

And yet the truth is that they are still a brilliant way of gaining shares and, more importantly, links back to your site. Our regular infographic roundup remains one of the most consistently popular posts each week.

At Distilled’s LinkLove conference infographic designer Claire Stokoe gave a talk on how to create the perfect infographic, and it turns out that the fundamentals aren’t that difficult. However getting it right takes a bit more effort.

This post has been on my mind for quite some time but after visiting ThinkVisibility on Saturday I felt it was ready to be written today.

Obviously as the owner of an infographic agency I have a vested interest in the debate, but hopefully my arguments will still hold up despite any bias I may have.

At ThinkVisibility I twice encountered what appears to be a growing sentiment amongst some in the SEO community: that infographics are just the latest fad in SEO linkbuilding and one that any PR/SEO worth his or her salt should avoid.